Many cities have high crime areas which require a police presence in order to keep the peace. Placing law enforcement officers in such high risk environments is not desirable. Further, it is costly and difficult to place such personnel in such environments at all times. Accordingly, what is needed is an automated surveillance unit which automatically monitors an environment, transmits video and audio signals from the environment, and allows remote control intervention of the surveillance unit in order to capture possible evidence from the environment should an undesirable event, such as a crime, occur.